Little Things
by JohnDoggettisaBadass
Summary: Mulder is late to work one day and Scully is concerned. When she finds out why, she drops everything to care for him. Soon enough, she comes to realize that sometimes the best things in life are the little things. OneShot.


A/N: Okay so it's been a while since I've written one of these but I really hope you like it. It's short and sweet :) Please review!

 **Washington D.C.**

 **Federal Bureau of Investigation**

Another day, another…monster? That might accurately describe her line of work. Not that she was tired of it; in fact, it was quite the opposite feeling actually. She enjoyed working through the cases that stumbled their way into the X-Files office. Whether it be a sewer monster swallowing people whole or a man with a knack for controlling fire, every case was eclectic in its own special way and that was something Agent Dana Scully cherished. God knows why.

What she did not cherish however was her partner not being in their office on this particular day. He was usually in before she showed up to work but today when she opened the door to the basement office, she didn't find him waiting for her on the other side. No PowerPoint, no plane tickets, no philosophical revelations about his newest obsession. Nothing. Not even a phone message on the office answering machine.

It was now almost eleven am and there was still no sign of the elusive agent. Two hours ago she had said she would wait another hour before calling Skinner. An hour ago she had pushed that deadline to now. And now she was considering pushing it back another hour. She didn't want to get him in trouble, not when the higher-ups in the Bureau were looking for any reason to shut down the X-Files, per usual.

Scully glanced at her wristwatch again while fiddling one of his sharpened pencils in between her fingers. She examined the pencil closely out of boredom. She had always been a pen sort of girl. Turning around in her partner's chair she caught his 'I Want To Believe' poster out of the corner of her eye and focused on that, trying to prevent the rational part of her brain from telling her it was time to call Skinner.

Scully looked up to the ceiling where little holes from sharpened pencils could be found in abundance. She looked at the pencil in between her fingers, shrugged and just as she was about to give it a shot herself, the phone went off like Wall Street on Black Tuesday and she nearly fell backwards out of the chair.

She answered it after the first ring.

"Dana Scully."

"Heya Scully, it's me."

She was going to kill him.

"Mulder," she seethed into the phone, "where the hell are you?"

She couldn't see him, but somehow she knew Agent Fox Mulder was smirking.

"Oh I'm at GW," he responded simply, as if that knowledge somehow answered all questions she might have. "Listen, Scully can you-,"

"Why are you at the hospital?" Scully interrupted.

There was a brief pause on his end, like he was confused by her inquiry. Like she knew exactly why he was there, like she always knew exactly why he did everything he did. That's rich.

"It's nothing, I just had a little bit of an accident this morning on my way to work. I know I should have called earlier but this is the first time I've had access to a phone since they took me into surgery and I-,"

"You were in surgery?!" Scully nearly shouted in surprise. "Mulder what happened?"

She heard him sigh deeply before continuing. Oh brother.

"Honestly I don't remember, but the Doc here tells me I got t-boned at the intersection of 16th and Virginia-," Scully made an audible gasp that caused him to momentarily stop his explanation and for her to cup a hand over her mouth.

"Scully?" Mulder asked. The slight concern in his voice blessed her ears. God her partner was…something else.

Scully got up from his office chair and began to shuffle around the desk as she collected her things and spoke quickly into the phone. "I'll be there in thirty minutes, do not move."

"Scully really I'm fine they just-,"

"Do. Not. Move," Scully instructed as she held the phone in between her neck and shoulder while scavenging through her handbag for her keys.

Mulder sighed. "Alright but you better hurry, I don't like this Doc nearly as much as you and I think I heard the nurses chatting about smothering my head with a pillow."

She allowed herself to smile for a half-second before setting the phone down on the receiver and sprinting out of the basement office.

 **George Washington Hospital**

 **A Few Hours Later**

"Ouch!"

Quickly Scully wrapped an arm around her partner's waist to prevent him from face planting into the hard hospital floor. She was successful, but he was still struggling.

Mulder stood hunched over and pointed to the wall with his index finger. Scully acknowledged and helped him limp slowly over to the side of the hospital hallway where he could sit down and take a break. She had been helping him walk for the last forty minutes now, against the doctors wishes and hers for that matter. Mulder took a seat on the floor and grimaced.

"Mulder," Scully said, watching him with caring eyes, "We've been at this for nearly an hour. I think we should go back to your room."

His face lit up suddenly as he gazed back at her. " _Dana Scully_ ," he breathed mockingly.

Scully shot him a look, knowing full well he knew that wasn't what she had meant. Even if the idea of **_that_ ** did make her heart flutter. "Mulder I mean it. You were in surgery just six hours ago, you shouldn't be up on two feet."

Mulder winced. "Not to be technical Scully, but technically, I'm on one foot," he said motioning down to the leg brace he now wore as a result of the surgery.

Scully sighed and bent over, lacing one of her arms underneath his armpit and using the other to support his back as she lifted him up. She had to press him almost roughly against the wall to keep him from collapsing. Talk about closeness, she thought.

She finally got him to the upright position and again put her arm around her partner's waist as she prepared them to walk back towards his hospital room.

"Good to go?" She asked, unable to look away from his pained eyes.

"Yeah," he groaned, obviously not good to go. Scully was mentally shaking her head. He was so annoyingly macho sometimes. Didn't he understand it was okay to not be okay sometimes?

She sighed and began to take small steps down the hallway with her injured partner. Halfway to his room, she realized that his hand was clinging to her waist. His fingers touching the spot where her slacks met her blouse. Luckily, before she could dwell on the touch of his finger on her waist any longer, his voice came stampeding through her thoughts.

"Think Skinner will finally throw that office potluck now that I'll be out on sick leave?"

Oh my God Skinner. She hadn't called him yet. In fact, she hadn't even thought of work since she had left all those hours ago after Mulder had called. Not once had the FBI popped into her brain since seeing him in that hospital bed.

She tried her best to play it cool, not wanting to worry him anymore than he already was about missing work. God he had probably never taken a real sick day in his life.

"I'm sure AD Skinner has more important things to worry about Mulder," Scully replied. "And if he does I'll make sure to save you some cake."

"This is why you're my favorite agent Scully," he teased back. She blushed but tried to keep her emotions under control. She couldn't let him know how much those little words meant to her.

She deflected with a joke. Something he would normally do. "How many agents do you actually know Mulder?"

He suddenly trembled and she thought he was going down again but his grip on her waist tightened and she in turn placed her left hand on his chest to steady him. They stood frozen in the middle of the hospital hallway as Scully scanned his face for any discomfort. He had turned his head away on purpose, but she needed to know he wasn't about to faint. Scully slid her hand up from his chest to his chin and pulled his face gently back towards hers.

His eyes were cloudy, but showed no signs of excruciating pain. He stared back at her for a few seconds before either of them said a single word. She suddenly realized how often she found herself lost in his hazel eyes.

Before she could do or say anything, before she could even remove her hand from his chin, he was leaning in towards her. A moment later his soft lips found hers. Even if she had wanted to pull away, she couldn't have. It was so quick and so surprising Scully had no time to process what was going on. All she knew was that Fox Mulder's lips were gently, warmly placed on hers and she loved it. All two seconds of it.

He drew away and she watched him open his eyes. He gave her a funny-looking grin; one she hadn't ever seen before. Unknowingly Scully had dropped her hand from his chin back down to his chest where it lay positioned just over his heart.

Unable to come up with anything to say, she stood there silently until he spoke.

"Scully."

Simple thoughts raced through her head like the world depended on them. Her name. That was her name. A response. He wanted a response.

"Yeah Mulder?" She whispered through the small gap in her lips while her mouth was finding it difficult to move.

That stupidly handsome, arousing and devilish grin still lay on his face.

"We're not really improving my odds at a speedy recovery by standing here," he said.

She mumbled a quick apology, though she didn't know what for and the two of them began to walk again back towards his hospital room.

…

…

Did she just kiss Mulder?

 **Fox Mulder's Apartment**

 **Later That Night**

Oh boy. It was getting late. Too late. And unlike her now 'officially on sick leave' partner, she had to get up and go to work in the morning. Not that she could get any real work done without him there. Sure she could review case files, maybe finish writing up a few reports, attend that 'completely optional but totally mandatory' meeting that Skinner was contractually obligated to have every couple of months regarding expense reports, or she could just spend all day thinking about the kiss.

Not that Scully really needed any more time to do that. It had only been the one sole important thought that had corrupted her brain for the past six hours. Not a second went by that the memory of his lips on hers wasn't rambling around somewhere in her head.

Eventually, after Mulder had been discharged from GW, on account of him begging her to quote "get me the hell out of here before I use this crutch to seriously injure Nurse Grabby", she had given up on questioning the kiss.

Maybe it didn't mean anything. Maybe he had just extended a friendly gesture. Which she took…oh God how she took it. She had to stop herself on multiple occasions from going down that path of deep sensual arousal. It was obvious by his lack of conversation on the subject that Mulder didn't seem to think it was a big deal, so why should it be?

He had been affectionate towards her in the past, maybe this was just him showing his thanks for her being such a wonderful partner. She almost scoffed out loud at the idea of that. What had she ever done but second-guess him at every turn and constantly refute his strongly held beliefs in the seemingly impossible?

Suddenly, a loud crashing sound came from down the hall and woke Scully out of her daydreaming stupor.

She stood up immediately and almost sprinted down the short hallway to the bathroom door.

"Mulder," she said worriedly as she knocked once on the door, "are you okay in there?"

His response came not more than a second after she had asked.

"Fine Scully, I'm fine, just need…oh shit-,"

A loud clanging sound penetrated through the door followed by a small thud.

"Mulder I'm coming in," Scully warned as she opened the bathroom door. He began to protest but could obviously tell it was no use and gave up. She found him sitting, legs outstretched, back propped up against the bathtub while his single crutch lay on the floor next to him. His jeans were unbuttoned but luckily he had gotten them on all the way before she had come in.

He must have seen the look of concern of her face because he was already reassuring her that he was fine, and she would have believed it too if not for his bloodied hand covering up his forehead.

Scully squatted next to him, took his hand in hers and slowly moved it off his forehead. He wasn't okay. There was an inch-long gash directly above his right eyebrow and it was still oozing blood. He winced and let out a sharp 'ouch' as she touched the side of the gash to measure its depth.

"Guess I'm pretty banged up Doc," Mulder joked.

Scully relaxed, knowing it was now just a minor cut. "Good news is we don't have to make another trip to see Nurse Grabby. Do you have any gauze?"

Mulder pointed at the cabinet above the sink behind them. She stood up and opened the cabinet, scavenging for the cotton bandage. She finally found it, on the top shelf. Of course it had to be the top shelf. Scully pushed herself up onto the counter top to retrieve the gauze and as she came back down, she noticed Mulder was looking at her funny.

"Don't make a joke about my height," Scully warned.

"There's blood on your slacks," Mulder said, motioning to her pants.

Scully glanced down and sure enough a dark spot roughly the size of a magic marker stained her work bottoms. She looked back to the counter top where she had climbed up on. There was smeared blood where Mulder must have hit his head. Great. How could she be so blind to her surroundings? She was an FBI agent for God's sake.

"I'll clean them when I get home," Scully answered as she bent down to apply the gauze to Mulder's forehead.

"Scully, that's going to leave a permanent stain quickly," Mulder explained, as if she didn't already know. "Just use my washer."

Scully stopped from patching him up momentarily to shoot him her classic "oh brother" look.

"And what am I supposed to wear in the meantime?"

Mulder smirked. He knew he had caught her in that one. But he was just being funny. He was always…funny…it wasn't meant to be risqué. Or was it?

"How do you feel about official Quantico sweatpants?" He asked while still beaming back at her.

Scully sighed and went back to addressing his wound.

"As long as their comfy," she whispered, unaware of her change in tone.

"Only the best for you Scully," he whispered back and suddenly she was very aware.

Once she was finished applying the gauze Scully helped Mulder stand up, flung her arm around him as she had done in the hospital and lead him to the living room. When they reached the couch, Mulder objected.

"I think I just want to go to sleep Scully," he said.

Scully understood and hauled him into his bedroom. She had never been in his bedroom before and was quite taken by how…simple it was. One mattress on a small wooden frame with two white pillows and a dark grey comforter. Next to the bed was a single nightstand with an alarm clock and a small lamp. The room had one small window but the blinds were shut and the moonlight barely peaked through the cracks.

She helped him get to the side of his bed, at which point he sat down and pointed to a small dresser which she hadn't seen at first.

"Top drawer," he mumbled, obviously the fall had taken more out of him than she had expected.

"Thanks," Scully said as she found the Quantico branded sweatpants and left the room to change.

When she returned, she held a glass of water figuring he hadn't had any all day. The door to his bedroom remained open and she walked in slowly making her way to his bedside. He had already climbed under the comforter and taken off his shirt. He sat up when he noticed her enter the room.

She sat down on his bed next to him and held out the glass of water as a sort of explanation as to why she was back in his room.

"Oh, thanks," he said, calmly taking the glass from her hand and sipping a few times before setting it down on the nightstand.

"My pants are in the wash, I'm just going to be right out on the couch if you-,"

"Thanks Scully," he said again, yet this time with a touch of true sincerity. "But you don't have to stay."

Scully smiled at the idea. Hell, maybe she hoped she could stay. But it wasn't right, and she desperately needed her bed.

"Just until my pants are done," she whispered while staring into his dark eyes in the dimly lit bedroom.

"Well you can keep the sweatpants; they look better on you than they do on me," Mulder said while staring right back into her own eyes.

Scully smiled wider and had to tear herself away from his gaze. If she stayed sitting here any longer-

One of Mulder's warm hands moved suddenly to rest on top of hers, holding her there, keeping her there, sitting so close to him. Like he needed her hand. Like he needed her to be right where she was. She couldn't pull away, not that she would ever want to. Soon enough he was gently massaging her palm with his fingertips as she cupped his hand in hers. Resisting Fox Mulder was something she didn't want to do anymore.

His voice once again pulled her away from a dreamlike state of yearning. Yearning for what, well that she didn't exactly know. Not yet.

"Scully," he said softly, "Earlier, at the hospital, when I kissed-,"

"Yes," she answered, cutting him off, terrified of what he might say if she let him finish.

He took a deep breath and held her eyes within his. Never once breaking eye contact as he spoke.

"I hope you don't think of me as-,"

"I don't," Scully interrupted, even though she hadn't the slightest idea what he had been going to say. She just knew she didn't think of him in any different way after the kiss. He was still Mulder. He was still _her Mulder._

He continued his slow gentle massaging of her palm and the few seconds of pin drop silence was driving her crazy. Crazy enough to do something she had never actually considered doing before.

Scully tightened her grip on Mulder's hand, leaned down into him and met his lips with hers for the second time. It wasn't forced or rushed or even that passionate. Her lips just melted into his for a few sweet seconds of pure, amazing bliss.

She withdrew only a few seconds after it had started and no matter how much a part of her wanted to start obsessing over what this meant for them as partners and friends, she couldn't think of anything else in the world besides the perfect smile that now lay on his face.

"Scoot over," she whispered.

He did. She climbed into bed next to him, laid her head on the pillow next to his and placed a single hand on his cheek, slowly caressing him until he leaned in one last time to kiss her lightly on her cheek.

"Goodnight Dana," he said.

"Goodnight Fox," she said.


End file.
